Sunday, May 10, 2015

"One
morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Great Britain found itself, in its
bed, transformed into a giant cockroach."

Andries du Toit, May 8th 2015

So they got in again.

The campaign funds from big business and
the incessant droning of the mainstream media about the need for continuity
persuaded just 1 in 4 of the British electorate to vote Tory, and as a result
they have a “majority” in the UK Parliament that means they can probably rule
unfettered for 5 years.

This is insane. As insane as First Past the
Post as an electoral system has always been, both in Britain and abroad. Let me share an
additional perspective – as an overseas elector, based down here in Cape Town,
those of you in Britain may be interested to know that without FPTP as exported
to the colonies by the British government of the time, apartheid would probably
never have been instituted. In the 1948 South African election, Jan Smuts’ United Party
comfortably won the popular vote. The UP was not much more racist than the
British Labour Party government of the time and had progressive intentions even
if they were some way in the future. But FPTP meant that the National Party won
more seats. Once the NP came to power they gerrymandered the electoral
boundaries in their favour, controlled and censored the press, and won every FPTP election from then onwards. It’s no wonder that
straightforward PR was instituted under the new government’s constitution in
1994. We do have another problem here in SA, with the ANC in power on a
corruptingly regular basis, but that’s because they regularly win over 60% of the
popular vote. And even with PR our form of “democracy,” learnt from the modern
West, does not encourage the finding of consensus over decision-making.

Equally, FPTP ensured that Robert Mugabe
established a dictatorship in Zimbabwe.
In 1980 when British officials asked him how many seats he expected to win, he
confidently predicted (to their incredulous surprise) an absolute majority for
his party, ZANU-PF. He understood the electoral system and made sure his people
campaigned effectively in the right seats, knowing the popular vote share was
not the important thing. And once he had a majority, he abandoned all pretence
of “democracy”, for FPTP was already encouraging a winner-takes-all approach.

More than 60% of Britons would like to see
a form of PR instituted for the UK Parliament. Not the pathetically watered
down AV system that the Lib Dems foolishly allowed themselves to campaign for
under the last administration, but a fair system, of which the Additional
Member System used in Scotland
and Germany
seems a brilliant balanced format allowing for regional and constituency
representation but with fair top-ups. In this current election, voters for
UKIP, the Lib Dems and the Greens accounted for 24% of the popular vote (7.5
million votes), and obtained 10 seats. If you include votes and seats for the
Scottish Labour party and Scottish Tories, that figure goes up to 12 seats for 8.5
million votes, or 28% of the vote and 2% of the seats.

This is not, I would suggest, simply a
matter of petitioning the Prime Minister who has little interested in changing
matters. If I was anywhere near Parliament, I would suggest that all the PR
supporting parties work together on this. Those people who buy in to the panic
about UKIP getting more say are not thinking clearly enough. Norfolk County
Council, as an interesting example, has shown that it is very possible for
Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens and UKIP to work together in a consensual way
over most issues, representing the vast majority of voters collectively, except
the Tories who have found themselves unexpectedly left out in the cold. Yes
there are racists voting for UKIP and even being elected for UKIP. But simply labelling
them as far righters to be ignored or stopped at all costs is not sensible or
fair given the size of their vote. They represent an angry populace: maybe some
of that anger is misdirected but they are not inherently friends of the Tories
and in many places their votes are more from dissatisfied former Labour voters.

So: if the SNP (pro-PR even though FPTP has
just benefited them) works in Parliament with the Plaid Cymru MPs, the Green
and UKIP and Lib Dem MPs, and sets up a Constitutional Convention to which
Labour is also invited (or even helps institute - for God’s sake, Labour have to come properly to the PR party
some time if they seriously want to be a party of the future!) and any pro-PR
Tories and Northern Irish MPs that can be found… then this Parliament could be
taken apart more quickly than we imagine and we could find a proper electoral
system in place next time and many other constitutional changes, not just the
ones Cameron wants to impose to keep things in his hands.

Or everyone could just sit back and allow
Cameron to rule on the basis of him having “won”. Because that’s what Brits
have done for the last few hundred years. (And frankly is one major reason I
don’t live there. But I do still care about what happens to that island of my birth).

I’m not holding my breath over this. But
surely the system is broken enough now for pressure groups to support these
forces inside Parliament in insisting that this government is not legitimate.
And to make it as difficult as possible for them to impose their views as if
they represent the “will of the people”. And then make sure this sham of an
election is never repeated.

About Me

Hailing from Muizenberg for the last 16 years, and Cape Town since 1996, I was born in the culturally independent state of Norfolk, known to the uninitiated as a flat county in the east of England. I often get away with being taken for South African these days, which is as I generally prefer it. 'n Pom maak 'n plan, as no-one has said yet. I am a ‘Transformational Energy Activist’ working in a range of environments with the principles of positive transformation. My exploration of this concept has evolved into many more holistic methods since my initially academic excursions. I have also worked for 12 years in the creativity-based Steiner/Waldorf school system; and am a performer in a number of fields.